Balloon Dilation of Lower Right Airway and CMV

 Balloon Dilation of Lower Right Airway and CMV

 

    As I mentioned, the first 5 years were bumpy. I had many complications. I can’t remember the chronological sequence of events so I will just recount the larger stories in no particular order.

    I needed very frequent bronchoscopies for the first few years. I had always had a lot of lung infections that seemed to start out in my bottom right lobe. That lobe was always making squeaking, wheezy noises when I would breathe and I could feel the vibrations of trapped mucus there when I would sleep on that side. Within the first or second year of transplant I would need to have a bronchoscopy with my surgeon present so he could do a balloon dilation of my airway. I’m not sure it helped much, though there was some slight improvement. My doctor decided I should take a puffer to try to keep the airway open. This really did help a lot. I would learn later that my donor was male and to get the lungs to fit into my body, the lungs needed to be trimmed. I was told the bottom right lobe must have sustained some damage during this process.

    I was in and out of the hospital more often than I would have liked. I went in several times for lung infections. One time, my CMV became active and an increase in oral medicine and several weeks of IVs failed to put it into dormancy. I had to go into the hospital for two weeks to receive an IV infusion of a nephrotoxic medicine called Foscarnet, that was a last resort at the time. My kidney function had to be monitored for the duration of the treatment. I luckily made it through with my kidneys unharmed and my CMV undetectable.